Celebration Homes Build in Piara Waters WA [Moved In]

Sealer which is oil based is the hardest. I bet paint should be much easier.

Good luck with your painting Oduen.

Yeah, I am using an oil based sealer. Solver Wall Sealer. It seems to vary from wall to wall. Some walls it goes on easily and others just soak it up.

We did the ensuite today and it went on very easily. Maybe there is something already on those walls or in the plaster to make them less porous.

Unfortunately the family that came to help had to return home after today so I am on my own for the remainder. Only a little bit of sealing remaining (bit of ensuite, two toilets, bathroom). I predict in the end we will have used around 33 litres of sealer.

We have been doing the entire wall though. Both roller and cutting in. I have been reading that a lot of people don't bother cutting in with the sealer and just roll as close to the edge as they can. If I did it that way it would have saved a lot of time.

Once the sealer is done I will sand and fill the walls. The sealer made a lot of chips and notches a lot more obvious.

My time off from work runs out soon so I am contemplating getting quotes to have the actual painting done. Hopefully having the walls already cleaned, sealed and prepped will make a dent in the original quotes I had (around $3.6k).

On another note the soak wells were installed today. After the amount of digging I saw the excavator do I am really glad I didn't opt to install them myself. Next step is to get someone in to level the block again and take away the excess sand.

Electricians will be there tomorrow doing all of the lighting and I have someone coming during the week for the TV points and data cabling.

ah i feel for you.. good luck finding a painter

Your house is looking lovely. You will be in before you know it. Are you rubbing back your walls after sealing?

Thanks

Yeah. I am doing sanding and filling today while the lights are being installed.

Hey just a quick question for a fellow Mason Green resident.

When you organised the fencing was there an option to get the fencing guys to provide a side gate at the same time? if so was it pricey or cheaper seeing as they are already there installing the fence? Or do you need to do that after hand over?

Also have you done your front landscaping consultation yet? Seems to be a few popping up now and they all look pretty different!

Hey,

I hit them up separately just before they did my fence install to get a quote for a side gate. It ended up being $660 and I went with it. It took a few weeks to have the gate made so it ended up being installed about 3 weeks after my fences. I imagine if you were still in construction at the time your builder might not like having a side gate installed. Probably better to do it after handover.

I did my landscaping consult a few months ago. There was a bit of back and forth and it went to the developer for approval mid-August. I hadn't head anything back so I hit them up today and they have said it is approved and I should be getting mine installed this week sometime.

Yeah, some of them are looking pretty cool. I didn't put much thought into the specific plants and went with whatever the landscaper recommended. Will see how it looks when it is done. I did opt to upgrade the grass though and add in some stepping stones and rainbow stones.

Yeah I think I will leave it till after handover to not be in the way at all for the builder. $660 seems steep for what we'll end up getting, probably only need a 800 wide gate I think, but having a quick google $400-800 seems the range for an installed colorbond gate.

Interesting about upgrading grass etc. Did they offer to add additional irrigation channels ie to later on connect the backyard to?

How is everything else going? Alot of houses going up really quick in the estate!

I thought it was a bit expensive but I couldn't be bothered dealing with it and looking for other quotes. I think it was $400 for the gate and $100 for each of the side posts, plus GST.

I am pretty sure during my landscaping consult the guy said that by default I can connect up any rear reticulation to the controller, so it must already include an extra irrigation channel.

They have a few grass choices that you can upgrade to for extra cost, and stuff like a stepping stone path, rainbow stones/pea gravel, aluminium edging etc. costs extra. I haven't been sent a bill or anything but I think for me to upgrade to Buffalo grass and have a stepping stone path surrounded by rainbow stones is about an extra $300.

They actually installed my reticulation today. All the rest of the garden should be done by the end of the week.

Everything else is going good. I am still painting, trying to do a room each weekend, but slowly getting there. After I am done with that I will look into skirting boards.

All the other important stuff is done such as lighting and window coverings. My remaining list is pretty much;

- Finish painting
- Skirting boards
- Rear/Side Landscaping
- Air Con
- Theatre Doors
- Overhead cupboards for kitchen

Still need quite a bit of furniture so will focus on that next. I only have one couch at the moment so the house is quite empty.

Front landscaping looks good!

Cheers! I really like it

Sorry to keep asking you annoying questions but when I think of something I remember you are great insight into what I am about to go through so..

Have you connected to the NBN yet? what is the deal with that? how early should I organise it / how long did it take for them to come out and set it up? is there an additional cost because it hasn't been installed before? Who did you go with?

Sorry! haha thanks in advance!

No worries

Yeah, I got connected before I moved in.

Basically once you choose an ISP and sign up with them they will arrange with NBN Co. to come out and install the NBN equipment.

I am with TPG because I was with them for NBN before. Haven't really had any issues with them. My plan is $100/month for 100/40 with unlimited quota (plus home phone I think but who uses that anyway).

The government changed it earlier this year so that when getting NBN set up in a new estate you have to pay a 'New Development Setup' fee of $300 which is a bit sucky.

Once I signed up with TPG the NBN guys turned up the next day to install the box outside of the house and connect it to the NBN pit. They then came out again 9 days later to install the equipment in my garage (you need to be there for that). I think it will depend on how busy they are though.

Hi mate, hope you don't mind me resurrecting this thread! I'm building with Celebrations soon, too.

Can I ask what you ended up doing with aircon, side and rear landscaping, and the crossover?

I'm stressing out about what to spend money on first, and what to finance and what to pay cash for. I'm picturing me only having a bed, fridge and a couch inside for a while, haha! It's not that bad, but I do have to work out priorities.

What did the crossover and soak wells set you back if you don't mind my asking?

Hey!

I haven't actually got around to doing the side and rear landscaping yet, so it is still just sand. I really need to just map out what I want to do with it and start getting some quotes.

Aircon I also haven't done yet. I didn't have the money left to get it done before Summer as I expect ducted reverse-cycle will cost at least $10k. I will keep on saving for a few more months and get it done in time for next Summer.

The crossover I had done by a paver my site supervisor recommended. It ended up costing $1750. That should be your first priority as it is pretty important and I don't think you can legally move in without one.

Soak wells were supplied and installed by Perth Soakwells for $2200. They did a really good job. I think I ended up getting 26 of the poly cube soak wells installed.

I didn't finance anything other than the house and land, so everything I have had done since handover has been out of pocket. It definitely adds up. I think I have spent around $20k so far and it will be around another $20k to really finish it off. That doesn't even include furniture.

Thanks for the great response! I'll be moving in just before summer, so besides crossover I definitely wanted to have landscaping and aircon done. That means soakwells and retic getting done too! Big jobs.

$2200 for soakwells sounds a lot better than I was expecting. The prospect of digging myself was pretty daunting so good to know that's a feasible option if I decide I can't be bothered!

Crossover I'd expected to be about $1,800 - so it's good to have that figure backed up.

I think financing the aircon is the only way I'll be able to get it done post handover and also do the other stuff I need doing with cash.

On that subject, the cheapest quote I got was a 14kw Samsung with 6 zones and 10 outlets, about $9k from memory. Everything else was between there and $12k. Definitely shop around and hopefully winter might bring some specials about. Jeff Mouritz and Ford & Doonan were among the better prices.